Clara's #1

Officially! Here's sharin'!

"Be our Guest" in viewing Isaac as Gaston!

 

It was really great for all of us to see Isaac in this new role! It was especially enjoyable for us to have Emily and Anna performing right along with him in this middle school rendition of "Beauty and the Beast". (The girls were GREAT at filling us in on all the rehearsals - we'd have never have known one thing if it were left to Isaac to share the details ;). ) There are many, many pics at curtinmusical.shutterfly.com if anyone has time to pick out I, E, and A there.

Kari - we loved the video on your blog! he hee! Thanks!

The foundation for our new home - US!

"Play"ing all weekend!!!

What a fantastic weekend for the Hoffmans! Isaac, Emily, and Anna and their friends and teachers successfully performed "Beauty and the Beast"! It was AWESOME!! We LOVED it!!! It was an exceptional production! It was especially exciting for us to witness Isaac unleashed as Gaston on stage! WOW! It was way too fun to see him make Gaston bigger than life on stage! He did a GREAT job of it! It was especially fun for him to play enemy to his best friend at school, Josh, who played the beast, along with other great friends playing Cogsworth, Lumierre and Chip - they all did FANTASTICALLY! Way too much ENTERTAINMENT!!! We were so grateful for the support of FAMILY and friends as Grandpa and Grandma Cooper, Maxwells, Laws, YW, Kara and a few others joined us for the play!

Saturday we played up Marisa's 12 year old birthday! Dearly beloved cousin and niece we LOVED having her and family here for the day! We ended up breaking in the barn with birthday decor and PARTY there! Precious, wonderful memories all weekend long!!!

P.S. We'll post pics of Isaac, Emily, and Anna in the play when we receive them from Kristi.

Clara cruisin'

This was one of Clara's first cruising videos last month. She will turn one year old next week! We adore her even more than we did upon first seeing her one year ago!

pics from krstis b-day...

here are some pics of kristi's birthday, i accidentally hit publish before i added pictures. ENJOY!

Kristi's Birthday!

A week or two ago Kristi had her birthday and we got to celebrate with her! It was really fun, going from delicious ice cream cake to all the kids giving her a massage/foot rub/hand rub/anything else you can think of! We had had a fantastic time! We love you Kristi and Calton and Camden! We are SO glad you live close enough to us that we can party whenever! WE LOVE YOU! Happy belated birthday Kristi!

Sick Kids!!!!

We have had a pretty rough week...it all started when Isaac got hives and started swelling up all over. The doctor said it was probably a virus and just to take ibuprofen and benadryl. Well, when Kate came home from school we heard "My back is itchy!" Uh-oh!!!! That night, Clara woke up with a fever and a bad cough... Two kids home from church!!(We found at 2 or 3 other kids were sick that day, too.) Well, Monday morning, Isaac decides he is feeling good enough to go to school... and came home with a REALLY badly swollen lip, hands, and feet. Doctors AGAIN!!! Anna also came down with what Clara had, so she missed school. Tonight we all had hot chocolate and scrambled eggs. Off to bed, everyone!!!!

P.S.- sorry we don't have any pictures... we could have gotten some really good shots but no one would approve.

Happy Valentine's, Happy Day!

Valentine's rush has come and gone - once again Mom survived but has lots of housecleaning and laundry to catch up on after the big week of making and delivering tons of Valentine's cookies, hosting class parties, and wrapping up sweet surprises for her own children. The only regret she has is not getting pictures of her Valentine's - they never looked so cute - ALL of them!- as they did Friday morning dressed in Mom's love (new outfits). Friday night we enjoyed celebrating as a family at the Magic Treehouse event downtown - LOVED Jack and Annie! Poor Isaac spent the entire weekend very ill, fever, rash and swelling all over his entire body!
Saturday brought more celebrating, Mike participated in three weddings, CaMarie accompanied him to one, Emily and Anna headed out the door dressed to the hilt for a friend's Valentine's tea, returned home later to head off to the bounce house with a friend for fun. The kids enjoyed more Valentine's candy and cards and PLAYING uninterrupted all day long while Mom and Dad were busy with the Stake marriage enrichment Valentine's event. Hurray!- it went well and was so enjoyable! Sunday night we opened our own family Valentine's to one another - the kind words were enough to buoy us up for another week! The girls also spent Sunday afternoon reenacting Saturday's tea party for the little girls - so sweet and precious to hear Zoie, alias "Miss Lily" so politely say, "May I have some Miwk?" English accent raising milk at the end, and upon Emily's spilling it she cordially stated, "Dhat's awright, Dawling." Happy days for all of us - and no more blogging now I've got a week long party to pick up after!

Love, Mom

P.S. I feel so lucky to have received 2 dozen white roses from my love - he said he wished he could have had time for the "special plans" he'd been anticipating - but what could be more romantic than spending the weekend LOVING each other, our children, and the stake? (Singing with him, being on the marriage panel with him, and dancing with him was very romantic too!) Love, Wife

Fun In UTAH!

So sorry we haven't posted in so long- we have a lot to catch up on. We went to Utah on Christmas Day. We arrived at the airport on the icy day and checked in our luggage. Then we started making our way to the gate and got there to find that we had a delay, and we got in Utah about 3 hours later than we planned. We made it through very roughly, with all of the kids throwing up at least twice on the plane except Isaac, Clara, and mom and dad. We were so grateful when we made it to the airport to find our grandparents, some of our cousins, and some of our aunts and uncles waiting for us at midnight. We feel so loved! Thank you so much to all those who greeted us there! Anyway, we made it to grandma and grandpas house through a HUGE snowstorm! We woke up and got to play with all our cousins then went down to Brigham city to see the Cooper side of our family! We had so much fun the whole time we were in Utah- we went skiing, went to the zoo, and had a night with each family! We also got to go to our old ward in Bountiful! It was SO great seeing everyone! We spent New Years Eve with the Cooper Side and had a blast making New Years Resolutions, cheering at midnight, banging pots and pans, stuffing ourselves with candy, and just being all together! It was SO FUN!!!!! Here are some pictures of our GREAT trip! And there are also some from our Christmas Day!

Merry Christmas!

Today we celebrated Christmas because we are going to Utah on Christmas Day. A couple of days ago we went to see Santa and every kid made sure they told Santa to come on Christmas eve. So last night we got all ready after celebrating Daddy' s birthday- HAPPY BIRTHDAY DADDY! We started off by opening our Christmas pj's from grandma cooper ( THANKS GRANDMA!!! )and raced to get them on. Then we read our Christmas story and scripture and went to bed. Luckily we were all very tired from staying up over the past couple nights that everyone went straight to bed. Mommy and daddy told us that we weren't allowed to wake anyone else up until 8:00 A.M. which must have been a magic trick because not one of us woke up until Anna and I woke up at 8:00!! So we got started right away tearing open our gifts. The main highlights were: Isaac got a nano chromatic ipod, Anna and i got two adorable life like dolls and a really cool camera, mikela got a beautiful doll as well and TONS of books and heelies, Kate got her very own D.S. and heelies, Esther got a leapfrog D.S. thing and PLENTY of other toys, zoie got twin life like dolls and a fun play dough set, Clara got lots of bright colored toys, and Missy got a brand new winter coat! After all the presents were opened, we went to the nursing home were we did a Christmas program. It turned out to be really fun! We headed home and started the dinner while dad took the older kids to take presents to a family that would need them. A week or so ago we all went to the store and picked out gifts for each kid in the family we chose to give presents to. We wrapped them another night and today we had the privilege to quietly lay them all out on their doorstep, ring the doorbell, and RUN! We wore Santa hats and crept quietly out, laying the presents nicely on the doorstep. Then we got away and Isaac rang the doorbell. We waited by a nearby car to see the reaction. The dad opened the door and excitedly called for his family, but we hurried and got in the car and drove away, with smiles on our faces and love in our hearts. It was SO MUCH FUN! We were thinking the other day about how elves are always happy, its because they are always making gifts and toys for other people! And they are always getting to serve others. We look forward to another great day tomorrow of seeing lots of family! HURRAY! We love you all!Sorry, we got TONS of pictures but i cant get them on right now so i will post them later. MERRY CHRISTMAS AND A HAPPY NEW YEAR!
-Emily

Just a Quick Brag..I mean BLOG!!

As a Mom I could NOT hold back from bragging, I mean boasting, no.. I mean BLOGGING about Isaac tonight! He performed his first ever solo as part of Curtin Middle School choir tonight. It was exceptional!!! He stood firm and fine, and didn't flinch - even I could not see any nerves before his solo. It was from one of his favorite songs "Grown Up Christmas Wish" - we love the Michael Buble version. What a fun experience for him and we were proud of his contribution to the choir performance this evening. Way to go Isaac! Emily and Anna were our beautiful 7th grade jewels on stage tonight - we LOVED seeing them sing as well! The Williamsport School District music concerts (band, orchestra, and choir) are amazing - we feel grateful for it!

Flashbacks

I can't believe how fast everyone is growing! Look at how little Missy used to be! And look at Esther's hair!!!

Concerts and Parties...

We can really tell that Christmas is coming because of all the concerts and parties! To start it all off, last Friday night we had our ward christmas party, which was a fun, great night. We had many wonderful talents and people at the party. The next day, Isaac, me and Anna had our piano recital, I think we all did GREAT! We are so thankful for such a great teacher-I think we have all really improved since last year. The same night we went to The Community Arts Center to watch the Annual Nutcracker performance. It was fun to watch because Mikela's friend got the main role as Clara! On Monday night (I think) Anna and I had our orchestra concert. We both LOVE playing the violin-the only reason we hesitate going to Loyalsock School next year is because we will really, really miss being in the Orchestra! It has been so much fun these past one and a half years of Orchestra- our teacher is REALLY GREAT and we have learned so much since the beginning of 6th grade. Mikela, too, will really miss playing in her Orchestra if we go to Loyalsock. Last night Mikela had her school concert. In orchestra, she got picked to play a solo in one of her songs! GOOD JOB MIKELA! Our mom got to play the piano for the chorus, so she had fun getting to be with Mikela at some of her pratices... and tonight we are off to Isaac's band concert, GOOD LUCK ISAAC! Next Tuesday is Isaac, me and Anna's chorus concert- WOW! We are BUSY!

Foster Filly!

Exciting news! We are "fostering" a little filly! It's a long story but the time came for Dippy to be weaned and it didn't go very well. We put her mommy and "aunt sadie" in the big pasture and her in the smaller one, but because horses are herd animals, she needed company and tried to get out. She got very sad and got a "boo-boo" from the fence. After weeks of planning what to do, we finally decided that the best way was to "rent" a filly her age from a rescue farm right down the road (that has lots of foals ready to be sold) so she could have a friend. Now we are fostering a gentle little "Cocoa" (named by grandma because of her rich color and markings). When she arrived she was a little ragged and scared, but after a little grooming and a couple walks with Anna, Emily,Mikela, and Dippy, she has became our friend. Now Cocoa and Dippy INSIST on being together in the same stall, sharing eachothers grain and hay, and being groomed side by side. They are definite best friends, and two little cuties. Little Dippy still nickers when she sees mommy, but loves having her new companion.

-Emily and Anna

Christmas Is Coming!

Since we didn't have school this weekend, we decided to decorate for Christmas! We started it all off by getting our beautiful Christmas tree on Friday Night. Then, with christmas songs playing and cookies baking, we trimmed the tree, decorated the house, put up christmas lights, went christmas shopping, and, to end it all off, we took our christmas picture. All of which will memories that last forever. Here are some pictures we took in the process of all that...MERRY CHRISTMAS!